By Steve Matthews, Senior Missional Consultant with FaithX

Throughout the month of March, the FaithX blog has been focusing on “Partnerships.”  The idea of working together, collaborating, and partnering is sometimes challenged by our American culture.  Increasingly it seems that we do not play well with others – especially across political lines.

I grew up with a strong protestant work ethic that discouraged me from asking for help unless it was absolutely necessary. Independence mattered.  I also learned that Darwin’s sense of evolution of species had everything to do with the survival of the fittest.  The implicit message I took in was do not admit weakness or risk failure.  Nurturing collaboration and partnership was rare.  Collaboration involved some measure of trust, and many of the people in my community were often stoic and distrustful of new experiences and new relationships.

Fast forward a few decades and while I am still not a champion at asking for help, I have gotten better at it, and I now have a new understanding of “survival of the fittest.”  What if “survival” wasn’t meant to mean, “Eat them before they eat you”?  What if survival of the fittest had more to do with emotional intelligence and a sense of recognizing that we need each other? What if collaboration and partnership is our highest evolutionary trajectory?

In a 2007 Newsweek article entitled The New Science of Human Evolution Sharon Begley reports on research that was conducted on the remains of Lucy (circa 4 million BC) and some of her nearest and dearest friends found in Ethiopia in 1974.  Lucy and her relatives belonged to the genus Australopithecus and were some of our earliest ancestors.

Begley reports that scientists are now exploring Lucy’s genome and recognize significant discoveries, like the fact that they were vegetarians.  They had small teeth good for fruits and nuts, but not meat. This suggests that early humans were more often prey than predators.

“The realization that early humans were the hunted and not hunters has upended traditional ideas about what it takes for a species to thrive. For decades the reigning view had been that hunting prowess and the ability to vanquish competitors was the key to our ancestors’ evolutionary success (an idea fostered, critics now say, by the male domination of anthropology during most of the 20th century). But prey species do not owe their survival to anything of the sort, argues Sussman. Instead, they rely on their wits and, especially, social skills to survive. Being hunted brought evolutionary pressure on our ancestors to cooperate and live in cohesive groups. That, more than aggression and warfare, is our evolutionary legacy.

Both genetics and paleoneurology back that up. A hormone called oxytocin, best-known for inducing labor and lactation in women, also operates in the brain (of both sexes). There, it promotes trust during interactions with other people, and thus the cooperative behavior that lets groups of people live together for the common good.”

Well, well, well… it sounds like we are wired for working together.  What if instead of using all the energy it takes to shore up our defenses and take care of ourselves independently, we leaned in and invested in practices that nurture our evolutionary trajectory toward partnership and collaboration?  Look around you.  Notice the other congregations, judicatories, community organizations, non-profits, and businesses just waiting to join hands with you for the sake of the common good.  To what are you being called that is so big that you cannot do it alone?

Email us here to learn more about how FaithX and our partners might better accompany you in your mission!